I watched this Cavs team a lot this season. Replace LeBron with another top 5 player (Durant, Giannis, AD, etc.) and they MIGHT be an 8 seed. However, just a regular all-star (a Horford, a Demar), and nah, they probably don't even make the playoffs. Without LBJ, they have very little creation/playmaking ability at all. I mean, hell, they couldn't break 100 points half the time against Boston WITH LeBron.
That said, I don't think people should be killing Boston. Boston overachieved quite well with no Kyrie and no Hayward. No need to falsely elevate the Cavs squad to affirm that Boston did about as well as could possibly be expected. Yeah, the youngsters kinda blew Game 7, but that was to be expected against LeBron. Tatum balled out, though; Celtics probably win if they fed him more down the stretch rather than continue launching threes.